Digital Start-Up Top Dog: Symphony Commerce #nrf15

Symphony Commerce won the first annual Digital Commerce Startup Competition, the National Retail Federation announced today at its 104th Annual Convention and EXPO. Better known as the NRF BIG Show, the four-day conference wraps up tomorrow at the Jacob K. Javits Center.

Symphony, run by CEO and co-founder Harish Abbott, received the title at the New York City-based exposition -- in the same city where retail was celebrated by this same organization for the first time more than 100 years ago.

Retail Innovation Celebrated

Fast forward 103 annual shows, and Symphony Commerce is the top digital dog out of five finalists. Symphony, which specializes in enterprise level commerce as a service, was established in 2010. It beat:

Guru Hariharan, CEO and co-founder, Boomerang

David Munczinski, founder, CEO and founder, Brickwork

Chris Bennett, CEO and co-founder, Soldsie

Peter Jackson, CEO, Ziploop

“Retail is changing at lightning speed and many of the innovations we’re seeing today exist because people like Harish followed his dreams to build a company that would so strongly impact our industry, and in this instance, a company that would change the way retailers and brands grow their businesses in the digital space,” Vicki Cantrell, NRF senior vice president and executive director of Shop.org, the NRF digital division, said in a statement.

Abbott said the award “validates the hard work we’ve put into building enterprise level commerce as a service."

Symphony delivers advanced commerce applications as a service to power online stores, fulfillment and marketing. It can handle a range of processes, including inventory management, support for mobile transactions and automated marketing campaigns and even recurring sales, like subscription services that send products to frequent buyers on a regular basis.

“By providing the end-to-end commerce infrastructure necessary for companies to grow and compete," he added, "we are freeing up brands and retailers to focus on what matters -- the merchandise, branding and relationships with customers."